Where in the World Is Your Offshore Finance Team?

India may be your first guess, but even Indian vendors are sending operations offshore. Here's a ranking of the top 50 offshoring destinations. The list may surprise you.Kate O'Sullivan, CFO.com | USJanuary 31, 2008

While India remains an offshore outsourcing juggernaut, the country's vendors are beginning to send their own operations to other countries. Indeed, Indian vendors have already moved far beyond their own borders, setting up offices from Ohio to Egypt.

That's a wise move, because competition grows more fierce every day, as other countries try to unseat India as the top destination for outsourcing. In fact, offshoring experts recently cited Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East as the up-and-coming hot spots — although those regions still have outsourcing-related issues to work out before they threaten India's crown.

Consultancy A.T. Kearney analyzes and ranks the top 50 offshore outsourcing locations worldwide each year, assigning each locale a rank based on a weighted combination of scores on 43 measurements in categories like financial attractiveness, business environment, and people and skills availability. Here are the 2007 results:

The Offshoring 50India and China still top the list, but Latin American countries are coming on strong.

Rank

Country

Financial attractiveness

People and skills availability

Business environment

Total score

1

India

3.22

2.34

1.44

7.00

2

China

2.93

2.25

1.38

6.56

3

Malaysia

2.84

1.26

2.02

6.12

4

Thailand

3.19

1.21

1.62

6.02

5

Brazil

2.64

1.78

1.47

5.89

6

Indonesia

3.29

1.47

1.06

5.82

7

Chile

2.65

1.18

1.93

5.76

8

Philippines

3.26

1.23

1.26

5.75

9

Bulgaria

3.16

1.04

1.56

5.75

10

Mexico

2.63

1.49

1.61

5.73

11

Singapore

1.65

1.51

2.53

5.68

12

Slovakia

2.79

1.04

1.79

5.62

13

Egypt

3.22

1.14

1.25

5.61

14

Jordan

3.09

0.98

1.54

5.60

15

Estonia

2.44

0.96

2.20

5.60

16

Czech Republic

2.43

1.10

2.05

5.57

17

Latvia

2.64

0.91

2.00

5.56

18

Poland

2.59

1.17

1.79

5.54

19

Vietnam

3.33

0.99

1.22

5.54

20

United Arab Emirates

2.93

0.86

1.92

5.51

21

United States (tier two*)

0.48

2.74

2.29

5.51

22

Uruguay

2.95

0.98

1.54

5.47

23

Argentina

2.91

1.30

1.26

5.47

24

Hungary

2.54

0.95

1.98

5.47

25

Mauritius

2.84

1.04

1.56

5.44

26

Tunisia

3.03

0.90

1.50

5.43

27

Ghana

3.27

0.90

1.25

5.42

28

Lithuania

2.60

0.83

1.98

5.42

29

Sri Lanka

3.18

0.96

1.22

5.36

30

Pakistan

3.23

1.00

1.11

5.34

31

South Africa

2.52

1.18

1.60

5.30

32

Jamaica

2.83

0.96

1.49

5.29

33

Romania

2.88

0.87

1.53

5.28

34

Costa Rica

3.00

0.86

1.36

5.22

35

Canada

0.77

2.09

2.30

5.16

36

Morocco

2.92

0.90

1.33

5.14

37

Russia

2.61

1.38

1.16

5.14

38

Israel

1.97

1.27

1.86

5.10

39

Senegal

3.19

0.82

1.05

5.06

40

Germany (tier two*)

0.46

2.19

2.40

5.05

41

Panama

2.88

0.75

1.40

5.02

43

United Kingdom (tier two*)

0.50

2.16

2.35

5.01

43

Spain

1.18

1.71

2.06

4.95

44

New Zealand

1.53

1.12

2.25

4.95

45

Australia

1.59

1.14

2.11

4.84

47

Ukraine

2.76

0.98

1.09

4.83

48

France (tier two*)

0.45

2.07

2.27

4.79

50

Turkey

2.06

1.31

1.41

4.78

50

Ireland

0.40

1.54

2.29

4.18

*Denotes countries with tier two cities, which tend to have a higher quality of life and lower living costs. The weight distribution for the three categories is 40:30:30. Financial attractiveness is rated on a scale of 0 to 4, while the remaining three categories are on a scale of 0 to 3. Source: A.T. Kearney Global Services Location Index